Since 1970, sow reproductive performance and prolificacy has improved dramatically. Today’s sow is genetically quite different. She is larger framed, with less back fat and more lean body tissue, besides having higher reproductive demands. The prolific, high-lean sow can raise more pigs per year, but also produce more milk resulting in heavier pigs at weaning. However, swine operations have a h...

We investigated the variation in eating speed by individual pregnant sows and the influence of feeding dry compared to wet feed. A total of 39 Norwegian Landrace × Yorkshire dry sows, 13 primiparous and 26 multiparous, were included in the experiment. In experimental period 1, each sow was offered 2.2 kg of a standard concentrate feed without added water. In experimental period 2, the sows were...

Lack of access to formal insurance market may prevent farmers from pursuing risky production activities with potentially large returns. How does access to formal microinsurance affect production and economic development? We report results from a large randomized field experiment conducted in southwestern China in the context of a subsidized insurance for sows. We induce exogenous variation in i...

The effects of CO2-water-rock interactions on the mechanical properties of shale are essential for estimating the possibility of sequestrating CO2 in shale reservoirs. In this study, uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) tests together with an acoustic emission (AE) system and SEM and EDS analysis were performed to investigate the mechanical properties and microstructural changes of black shales ...

In conventional chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), surfactant mixtures must be optimized to obtain the so-called “optimum formulation” characterized by a three-phase behaviour (WIII) and an ultra-low interfacial tension between crude oil injected water. To attain this condition, discontinuous salinity scans of Surfactant-Oil-Water (SOW) systems are usually performed in series sealed pipettes...

Newborn piglets were removed from their dam and their responses to a variety of sensory stimuli were tested in four experiments. Test stimuli were presented simultaneously in multiple-choice arenas. Piglets allowed to choose among recordings of sow vocalizations, piglet vocalizations or white noise in a 5-min test spent more time in proximity to vocalizations of sows and piglets than near white...

Residual feed intake (RFI) has been explored as an alternative selection criterion to feed conversion ratio to capture the fraction of feed intake not explained by expected production and maintenance requirements. Selection experiments have found that low RFI in the growing pig is genetically correlated with reduced fatness and feed intake. Selection for feed conversion ratio also reduces sow a...

Non-wetting super-hydrophobic or super-lyophobic surfaces are of great interest in a variety of applications. Natural water repelling surfaces show micro-/nanocombined hierarchical structure which shows extremely low wettability and self-cleaning characteristics. Inspired by such natural wonders, there have been tremendous efforts to create artificial non-wetting super-hydrophobic or super-lyop...

The effect of oxidation of activated carbon (AC) with various oxidizing agents (nitric acid, hydrogen peroxide, ammonium persulfate) on preconcentration of metal ions (Cr3+, Mn2+, Pb2+, Cu2+, Cd2+ and Zn2+) from environmental waters prior to their flame atomic absorption spectroscopic analysis was investigated. The highest recoveries and adsorption capacities towards metal ions were achieved wh...